In the garden, a green staircase climbs skywards from inside a mesh cage, seemingly referencing the confinement of the Palestinians by Israel's occupation.

But the symbolism of the staircase, coming to a dead end in mid-air, is open to interpretation.

Curator Reem Fadda said the collection was meant to spark discussion of "cultural resistance" to the policies of Israel, which occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

The West Bank and Gaza Strip were occupied in the same year but not annexed, and their occupants need special - and hard-to-get - Israeli permits to visit Jerusalem.

Fadda said she had not been able to make the short journey over the past year as she does not have such authorisation.

"The aim of this exhibition is really to provide a way for us to think in a creative way how can we resist this hegemony of Israeli occupation that is facing the city of Jerusalem through a cultural stance," she told AFP.

Another goal of the show, she said, is to "present Jerusalem to the people of Palestine that can't go to Jerusalem".